Bing’s next wave of services rolling out

Looking at Bing’s new search features, I can’t help wondering if the attachment to Google is like using the console instead of windowed applications: I’ve always done it, and it gives me more raw data. Do I really want raw data?

Google is great at searching, and Bing’s quest to catch it seems impossible, particularly in terms of the ever-elusive search share. But it’s fair to admit that Bing has been innovative. Take a look at a very recent Bing blog post for details on the new features being launched (if you don’t want to read the philosophy, just check out the images – and no, the rollout isn’t ready yet, and I haven’t seen the services live either).

image In particular, I like the events search (check out the screenshot on the right). I think that represents pretty much what people want out of a search engine when trying to browse a category instead of hitting an exact match on one subject.

While Google is great at ranking pages with relation to a keyword and a specific search need, it’s far less effective as a browsing engine. And while Microsoft prefers to call Bing a decision engine, I don’t think it’s there yet – but its current “browsiness” is closest thing to a decision engine I’ve ever used.

This isn’t a statement on Bing vs. Google, particularly when coming from a Finn, who is largely unable to benefit from Bing’s US-only improvements. But I am eagerly waiting for the international rollout – let’s face it, the purely keyword-based search just doesn’t cut it for the future.

And boy am I glad Google is getting some challenge here.

November 13, 2009 · Jouni Heikniemi · No Comments
Tags: , ,  Â· Posted in: Web

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